Ticked off!!!!!!

[in2adventure]

So.....I'm in a local, piece of crap, pet store checking on puppies. Last year at this time they got a BC from an Amish puppy mill and I was checking to see if they had anymore (they didn't). Anyway, sitting on the shelf next to the petting booth is a book by Animal Planet called "Designer Breeds". What the h*** is that crap?! Inside the first chapter..........the difference between a mix breed and a designer breed is mixes are the result of haphazard or unplanned breeding and a designer breed is the result of the carefull selection and breeding of two purebreds (not exact quote, but as close as I can remember).

WTF! I can't believe animal planet actually supports this book and they are actually promoting the sale/breeding of mix breed puppies. As far as I'm concerned, designer breeds are the product of puppymills and BYB's trying to make extra cash. Every puppy in that store, except for a min-pin, was a mix breed. They were selling for around 1000 and a few older ones were on sale for 100-200 off.

The whole designer thing ticks me off to no end, but now that I see animal planet has jumped on the band wagon, I'm stomping mad

Just needed to vent. I'm off to surf craig's list and kijili for unwanted BC's.

[bailey]

I am with you on this subject! When I was recently looking for a new member of our family someone mentioned to check out the puppies at Lambs Pet Farm which is near me. This place provides an environment for adults with developmental disabilities and I have supported it for years. However, I never knew they sold puppies until mentioned. I looked on their website and there is ONLY designer puppies. Every kind you can imagine! Boogle, Bosapso, Cav-A-Tzu, Bea Tzu, Lhasalier, Malzer, Puggle, Shi-Chi, Shiffon...some of these I had never heard of. What upset me the most is some of these pups had defects such as Open Fontanelle, permanent films on eyes...so they put them on Sale...down from $1,250. I was so disgusted, upset and ticked off, I don't think I can ever support this organization again. I think they would serve a better purpose to help the disabled AND shelter pups!

[PCarpenter]

I am so sick of the whole concept of designer breeds! There is no such thing as a Puggle. Can the "breeder" guarantee a consistent physical standard and behavior? Or is one pup going to to have long ears and excel at chasing rabbits, while his bug-eyed littermate is so intellectually challenged that he can't even serve as a lap dog? Back in the day, we called these dogs MUTTS. Didn't mean they couldn't be great pets. But they were MUTTS. These were the dogs that people gave away free because their Beagle had an unplanned romance--people didn't have the nerve to charge anybody for the mixed breed puppies. No one would have dreamed that a few years down the road, you could not only charge for these beasts, but charge big mega bucks. What's scary is that people actually pay one thousand, two thousand, whatever, for a MUTT that you can probably find for free (darn close to it) at your local shelter! I wouldn't even pay that kind of money for a purebred, unless a)I was dead serious about show-ring competition, or b) the breed I wanted was so rare that there are only two breeders in the entire USA.

[kgunther]

I agree. And it is one of the things that bothers me about some of our dog sports. Take flyball for instance and how popular border-staffies and border-jacks have become. Again, they are great dogs and they do excel at the sport. But is winning a game so important that we are now encouraging these breedings at the expense of all the other homeless and unwanted mutts in the world? I thought it was just supposed to be a game and something fun to do with your family and your dog. Why do we have to breed special dogs to do that?????

Kristy

[Seelie Fey]

FWIW

I do flyball. I do it with my two rescue dogs I adopted from the pound. No one one my team owns a border-staffy or border-jack. The majority of people who play the sport play to have fun with their dogs.

[in2adventure]

FWIW

I do flyball. I do it with my two rescue dogs I adopted from the pound. No one one my team owns a border-staffy or border-jack. The majority of people who play the sport play to have fun with their dogs.

I agree. MOST do it because they love their dogs and love the sport. My agility group in MT is made up of mostly rescues and mixes. They do awesome and their owners love it as much as the dogs do. With that being said, I see in agility, flyball and other dog sports where people are getting into breeding what think is a more sporty dog for the sport at hand. They are selling these animals for a ton of money and they aren't even PB. Many clubs aren't as relaxed about what they compete with.

I have no issue with responsible breeding to better a PB animal, but this whole thing of PB designer dogs is stupid. Hurray! someone figured out a grand money making sceme, but they are doing it at the expence of the animals and the people bying them are too stupid to own a dog if they think they are really getting a PB mixed breed

[kgunther]

I agree that the majority are still in it for fun. I play with my 3 rescued mutts who all came from shelters. And the majority of the dogs on our team are rescues. We do have one border-jack but our team member only took her because she was being rehomed from a person who had too many dogs and could not take care or "play" with all of them anymore. But I just see an unhealthy trend starting with more and more people interested in getting border-staffies. Even down here in the south where flyball is not that "big" I see more and more teams seeking out and buying border-staffies. And when that happens, it just encourages more people to breed them (i.e. where there is a demand, there will be a supply).

Kristy

[PCarpenter]

Too bad Sophie has been spayed. I could start my own designer breed, the Borzoi Collie. Heaven help any small critter in the entire county! And I'm sure this dog could blow away the competition at an agility event. Or run the competition into the next county. Either way, your "BC" wins!

My favorite Designer Breed would have to be the Bull Shiz. Try "selling" that breed with a straight face. Not that I can understand how anybody can say "Puggle" with a straight face either...and include "$2,000, please" in the same breath.

My coworker has a MUTT she affectionately refers to as a Dobrador.

Sorry. I had to have some fun with this subject. Otherwise, I'd get so POed I'd blow a gasket!

[in2adventure]

Too bad Sophie has been spayed. I could start my own designer breed, the Borzoi Collie. Heaven help any small critter in the entire county! And I'm sure this dog could blow away the competition at an agility event. Or run the competition into the next county. Either way, your "BC" wins!

My favorite Designer Breed would have to be the Bull Shiz. Try "selling" that breed with a straight face. Not that I can understand how anybody can say "Puggle" with a straight face either...and include "$2,000, please" in the same breath.

My coworker has a MUTT she affectionately refers to as a Dobrador.

Sorry. I had to have some fun with this subject. Otherwise, I'd get so POed I'd blow a gasket!

I'm with you. Gotta have a lttle fun

[in2adventure]

Just saw an ad in our local newspaper for BORDER DOODLES. What the heck is that? They were selling them for $350

[magmile]

Border Collie - Poodle

For some reason, poodles seem to be a breed of choice to mix with.

[coileangra]

the difference between a mix breed and a designer breed is mixes are the result of haphazard or unplanned breeding and a designer breed is the result of the carefull selection and breeding of two purebreds (not exact quote, but as close as I can remember).

no, the difference between a mutt/mix and a "designer" dog is the stupidity of the people believing they have something "special" and willing to pay 100's to 1000's of dollars for it....until the people get educated it won't stop...and we all know it's easier to educate an Afghan (dog ) than it is to educate people....

when they started w/ the 'doodles in Australia it was selectively done, but not here at all...we see $$$ signs and become money hungry.......

on that note, my sister has a (black) Goldendoodle and she is a fantasic dog.....but when asked wht her dog is she tells them a mutt Golden/Poodle mix....unfortunately she did have to pay $350 for it....she wanted a black, young to puppy St Poodle but there weren't any around and she had looked for almost a yr (no rescues, breeders, etc)

[Laura D]

I do flyball. I do it with my two rescue dogs I adopted from the pound. No one one my team owns a border-staffy or border-jack. The majority of people who play the sport play to have fun with their dogs.

I realize this is an older post, but I just wanted to point out that we have several border-jacks in our flyball club, however, every single one is a cast off rescue from another club where the dog 'didn't work out'.

Seems we take the unwanted border jacks that people can't train, turn them into kick butt super fast reliable flyball dogs, and then beat their previous owners teams in the flyball ring. Oh sweet revenge for an unwanted flyball dog don't you think?

[Seelie Fey]

I do flyball. I do it with my two rescue dogs I adopted from the pound. No one one my team owns a border-staffy or border-jack. The majority of people who play the sport play to have fun with their dogs.

I realize this is an older post, but I just wanted to point out that we have several border-jacks in our flyball club, however, every single one is a cast off rescue from another club where the dog 'didn't work out'.

Seems we take the unwanted border jacks that people can't train, turn them into kick butt super fast reliable flyball dogs, and then beat their previous owners teams in the flyball ring. Oh sweet revenge for an unwanted flyball dog don't you think?

[TrishD]

Since we've been unable to figure out if our girl is a BC, an Aussie, or a BC/Aussie mix, we jokingly decided to give call her a Bossie (which definitely suits her when she wants to be petted!). Then we found out there already IS a "designer" dog called a Bossie. A mix of Boston Terrier and Aussie. Crazy!